Corey Taylor of Slipknot/ Stone Sour has mostly been in the news for attracting controversies apart from his music. Little did anyone know about some of the tragic incidences that he faced as a child. Corey, while in a conversation with Dr. Siri Sat Sam Singh at Viceland‘s The Therapist, spoke about some of the problems he faced as a child; that included sexual assault, drug abuse, domestic violence and even a near-death suicide attempt. Taylor has spoken frankly and did not hesitate to open up these topics that seemed rather too personal.

[Video transcribed by Rock Feed] “I took a bunch of pills at my grandmother’s house and just basically laid on the floor. My ex-girlfriend’s mom stopped and my grandmother’s house outta nowhere to check on me, to see how I was and found me. An hour later I was drinking ipecac and throwing up into a bucket. The girlfriend whose mother found me had just broken up with me. There was just something about her that I really connected with but when that went away, a lot of me went with it. I felt so empty that I had a hard time feeling anything other than grave depression. It was the one time I really was just like I can’t handle this.“

The Slipknot vocalist was moved with emotion as he recounted the look on his grandmother’s face as she arrived to pick him up from the hospital. He says it was almost enough to lead him to attempt to take his own life again. “So my grandmother came and picked me up. My grandmother, who has been the one person in my life. She came and picked me up and she was so disappointed.” Taylor said, fighting back tears. “I could see it on her. You know, it was almost like a race of emotion. Just disappointed, she was glad I was okay, but she was so mad. That killed me and it hurt so much that I didn’t like, it almost put me over again that I immediately just said ok, it’s not something’ you come back from.“

Speaking on past issues with drugs, Corey talked about waking up in a dumpster because he believed his friends thought he had died following an overdose. “The last thing I remember was I was taking cocaine and all of the sudden I was waking up in a dumpster. All my friends were gone.” Taylor said. He adds, “What I think happened was they thought I was dead. You can’t call them friends really. That was like the defining moment for me and that’s when I moved. This was in Waterloo, Iowa where my mom and my sister live. Then I moved to Des Moines, to live with my grandmother to break that cycle.“

Taylor even mentioned about a sexual assault on him that occurred when he was just 10 years old. “Where we were living at the time — we moved around a lot so obviously I had to make friends quickly. There was really only one person to hang out with, to play with and he was this sixteen-year-old kid. He would invite me over to his house to play music and one day it became something else and I didn’t tell anybody for a long time because he threatened to hurt me, threatened to hurt my mom. He ended up burning his house down and they fled in the night. It was kind of crazy.” Corey said in reflection.

For Corey Taylor, it feels like this was more about showing his fans that even those highest up go through pain and suffering. This was an incredibly brave move on his part and he has repeatedly demonstrated why we are lucky to have his leadership in the metal community. You can watch the full episode at Viceland (with a valid cable subscription) here.